Earthscorch
Profile "Efficiency is the key to victory." The perfect soldier, Earthscorch performs his function with deadly efficiency. Attacks first in his hoverjet mode by blasting an area with his twin rocket pods, then transforms into robot mode to finish off any survivors with his fellow Decepticons. His bulk gives him a low air speed and limits his maneuverability, making him an easy target for smaller, faster aircraft. Spends more time planning than actually doing. A brilliant strategist and tactician with a knack for leadership. Cold and calculating, yet young and impatient. Never takes unnecessary risks. Carries a high-powered machine gun in robot mode. History Earthscorch was created in 1985 by a sort of Decepticon mad scientist, Dissect, who used alien technology as his basis. He was ideally to be the first in a new line that was intended to replace the standard seekers. He was introduced to his partner, Airstrike (who is a character on Lost Years, that has never RPed), and he was told to expect to patrol for a few hundred years before being noticed. Cybertron was almost completely rid of the Autobots by this time, and it was widely believed that the Autobots would soon be destroyed. Earthscorch performed well and efficiently, and Dissect intended to introduce him to Shockwave, but the worst had occured: an attack on Autobot City had gone terribly wrong, resulting in heavy losses on both sides. Worse a strange mechanical planetoid (Unicron, of course!) had entered into Cybertron's orbit and devoured its two moons. Eventually the Decepticons were called upon to battle Unicron, and his first strike against Cybertron reduced Earthscorch's home province of Durahex to what is now called the Finger Canyons. The Autobots destroyed Unicron and took advantage of the Decepticons' moment of weakness to drive them from Cybertron. Earthscorch and Airstrike were loaded into a shuttle along with others and a load of energon and sent to Charr. But disaster struck along the way, and a stray meteor collided with the shuttle, killing all aboard, except for Earthscorch. He drifted through space for some time, and just when he was near shutdown, he was retrieved by Scrapper. In Earthscorch's absence things on Cybertron had gone very poorly. The Autobots and Decepticons had returned to a deadlock that hadn't existed in many millions of years. Unicron had robbed Earthscorch of his simple life and destroyed everything he knew. Earthscorch went from emotionless to a bitter being of barely-contained hatred for nearly everyone and everything. Things were far different now, with ranks and territory constantly changing. He fell in and out of the favor of the then-Aerospace CO, Scourge. He became interested in the MSE division, and began acting like an assistant to them, growing particularly fond of DreadTread and Sunflare. He even started to learn Decepticon repair from the rogue Quintesson merchant Dealiticus at the neutral city of New Vilnacron, but never completed his training. The Decepticons annexed Earth, and Earthscorch was reassigned there. It was his first view of Earth and he didn't like it. He became impressed with Scourge, Cyclonus, and Flanker, in particular. Ramjet had impressed him too, as Aerospace XO, but he was replaced by Flanker during this period, which Earthscorch thought was an improvement. Flanker took him and others to an oil field in Canada, and showed him how the actions of the Decepticons affected the humans. It made Earthscorch question his assessment of the humans as nuisances that were best exterminated. He was later assigned to the outskirts of San Francisco, where he spoke to various humans, softening his image of them more. But then, just as he was settling back in, his world was shaken: Flanker had challenged Scourge, and died. Confusing matters further, Scourge named Earthscorch as the new XO, temporarily. Earthscorch swore to kill Scourge one day. The annexation ended, though the Decepticons retained control of Africa for a time. Soon there was to be an attack on New Vilnacron, and Earthscorch did something he once would have considered unthinkable: he warned Dealiticus, allowing him to escape. The city was razed and when the dust settled, most of the Decepticon command settled on Cybertron, and Earthscorch found himself as commanding officer on Earth (Trypticon, specifically) after Cyclonus left. Eventually Ramjet reassumed the position of CO after the Decepticon ranking system was revised, but after a skirmish on Charr, Earthscorch replaced Ramjet. Earthscorch had always desired nothing more than to be a voice in the ear of the commanders; this was far more rank than he had ever wished for. He found the position chaffing, and though he honestly did try, he was eventually removed and the Aerospace division was scrapped entirely. Through all of this, Scourge became increasingly antagonistic, imbittering Earthscorch toward him all the more. Earthscorch had used his rank for selfish gain only once: buying a home in Nightsiege. After his last demotion, Earthscorch went back to his roots, going on wide, lonely patrols on Cybertron. Few saw him, except when a call for all available Decepticons went out. At one point he became interested in his own origins, and began excavating the Finger Canyons, with the assistance of Ravage. He unearthed his old base, and read his origins from Dissect's logs. Intriguingly, Dissect had mentioned that Earthscorch was a small prototype with many flaws he intended to remove in the production model. A disturbing point (which Earthscorch hasn't shared), is that Dissect used an Autobot neural net to build Earthscorch's personality on. Among the flaws was Earthscorch's unique hover engine, which Dissect had created after observing a hover engine in the posession of a tentacled merchant -- a flawed copy. Earthscorch travelled to Dealiticus's new shop on Monacus, and sure enough, he possessed the original engine that Dissect had tried to duplicate. Having acquired this, he begged permission from command to be rebuilt into the production model Dissect had intended him to be. Under the loving scalpel of Scrapper, it finally came to be. Now he has returned to his self-imposed bitter exile, doing patrols in isolated portions of Cybertron and avoiding all contact with others. Notes * OOCly, Earthscorch is commonly referred to as Earth, Earf, Scorch, El Scorcho, and Pancake. * His voice is sort of like Cy-Kill's but more resonant, or perhaps more like Tichondrius from Warcraft III. * Earthscorch's design includes hover engines that are unique among the Decepticons. They allow him perfect aerial movement in all directions, and while they are active, he cannot touch the ground. They require little energon to run, thus he has no landing gear. The hover engine resembles a latticework inside his wings, and if his wings are heavily damaged, he must remain in his robot mode. * His alt-mode is sometimes considered pancake-like. In actuality, it is based on the castle bomber from the RPG book Rifts Mercenaries. * Spoiler calls Earthscorch "Scorched Earth ™," OOCly, implying he stole his name from the shareware game of that name. In actuality, it was stolen from the computer game Ironsword. * Earthscorch was rebuilt into a larger version of his old self, mainly by Scrapper. * Vertigo has never lost to Earthscorch. Earthscorch considers defeating Vertigo in a fair dual a major stepping stone in his advancement toward one day slaying Scourge. * Earthscorch was CO of the old Aerospace division once, and XO at least twice, as well. * Earthscorch doesn't desire rank, but generally feels like he could do a better job than whoever is in charge. He always follows orders without question, unless he thinks he can get away with disobeying. He rarely takes this chance, though. He's good at talking his way out of trouble, when he does get into it. * He rarely uses contractions most of the time. However, when he's in combat, he can get excited and forget himself, acting in a more natural way. In fact he's very stiff and formal unless really excited, though he isn't particularly good at hiding his feelings (usually negative) about things. * The only people he considered friends were Airstrike (from his backstory), Flanker, Dealiticus, DreadTread, and perhaps Sunflare. * Decepticons he respects are Cyclonus, Shockwave, Soundwave, Scrapper, and Onslaught. There are very few exceptions to this list. * The list of characters he hates is far longer. Scourge is at the top of the list for reasons noted above. He used to focus his on hate Rodimus Prime, who represented the demise of Decepticon rule to him more than anyone else. During the annexation of Earth, Rodimus Prime was captured, and Earthscorch decided that his inexperience was a hinderance to the Autobots. He has learned to strongly dislike Galvatron, considering him a greater hinderance to the Decepticons, than Rodimus Prime is to the Autobots. He has a great dislike for many of the minor commanders, like Motormaster and Fusillade as well. He's never had a proper rival among actual enemies. * Earthscorch will bully other Decepticons who: A) are weaker than him; B) are dumber than him; or C) have less rank than him. However, when he is in a position of high rank, he lays his bullying aspect aside and takes the responsibility very seriously. * He detests the Monacus Olympics and only has entered one event, at Galvatron's command: air/ground demolition derby. He rammed his fellow Decepticons out of the competition. This wasn't out of spite, but rather because he was unable to reach the ground. However, he does enjoy visiting Monacus, somewhat. Sunflare introduced him to a drink he enjoys called the Liquid Starlight, which can only be found in one bar on Monacus. Dealiticus has set up shop on Monacus too, and Earthscorch always discretely visits him during the Olympics. * Earthscorch's player named the Decepticon shuttle, Relentless. It is a good name. Logs Players Just the one, since April 21, 1997.